Year of the Dragon (1985)

In this entertaining and illuminating 1985 crime thriller,Mickey Rourke stars as Capt. Stanley White,a hard-bitten cop with a weary intelligence far beyond his years.

Transferred to a new precinct,the abrasive detective White soon finds himself involved in a crusade to take down the corrupt,criminally run higher powers of NYC's Chinatown. To boil a complex storyline down to it's basics: White must balance his intense desire to bring the violent Triad leader Joey Thai(John Lone)to justice,despite the protests of his bought-off supervisors, with his crumbling personal life(his wife has grown to despise him and he is attracted to a Chinese-American reporter working his Chinatown expose). Adding color to his predicament is his attempt to stay true to justice by fighting off his racist attitudes towards Chinese. While there is no doubt that the triads are engaged in illegal Mafia-style activity,and that White is justified in pursuing them,there is the strange possibility that his rough treatment of Chinatown as a whole stems from his unwillingness to lose another war "because of politics",like he did in Vietnam.

Directed by the stylish Michael Cimino(recovering quite well from the *bloatatious* "Heaven's Gate") and boasting a strong script from the early years of (pre-P.C.)Oliver Stone,"The Year of the Dragon" is a very fine addition to the cop-on-a-mission subgenre. Mickey Rourke,an ever-underrated talent-gives one of his finest performances in the lead,and,despite all of his character's flaws,we become endeared to the character and enraptured by his pursuit of the oft-overlooked Triads of Chinatown. Rourke is a strong and capable presence here,and it's a shame his career didn't survive the 80's. Only the occasional logical gap or plot hole,and the juvenile performance of the obnoxious(but gorgeous) Arianne as the reporter detract from the film's glory. A little trimming of it's excessive 136 minutes would have helped as well.

Regardless of these few failures,"The Year of the Dragon" is a sumptuous and exciting thriller,and awaits a larger audience to discover it's challenges. Stay tuned for this one. ***1/2 out of ****stars. "It's always about politics.This is Vietnam all over again. I'm not gonna lose another war over politics." -Stanley White

Note: A ridiculous,politically-correct disclaimer has been attached to the film by it's distributers. This is a stupid move as the film is in NO WAY demeaning to Chinese-Americans as a whole. The movie only attacks the old-world criminal elements feeding on the underbelly of a few of the larger Chinese communities in the U.S.-the Triads,youth gangs,etc. These organizations do exist,but are not representative of the Chinese-American majority. In the end,crime does not discriminate between the races,and neither does "The Year of the Dragon".